Chuck Lorre gave the instruction to stars Kunal Nayyar and Johnny Galecki, Nayyar recalled.

Big Bang Theory boss made stars put their shirts back on after going bare-chested in scene: ‘These guys don’t have gym bodies’

Chuck Lorre gave the instruction to stars Kunal Nayyar and Johnny Galecki, Nayyar recalled.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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June 16, 2026 9:21 p.m. ET

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Kunal Nayyar and Johnny Galecki star on 'The Big Bang Theory'. Credit:

Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty

- *The Big Bang Theory* actor Kunal Nayyar, who portrayed Raj on all 12 seasons of the CBS sitcom, looks back on a funny moment from the sitcom.

- Creator Chuck Lorre once instructed Nayyar and costar Johnny Galecki to put their shirts back on in a scene, he recalled on the official show podcast.

- Nayyar took it as a compliment.

*The Big Bang Theory** *star Kunal Nayyar will always fondly remember being told he looked too ripped.

It happened when Nayyar, who played Raj Koothrappali on all 12 seasons of the sitcom, and costar Johnny Galecki (Leonard Hofstadter), showed some skin while filming season 3's "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency."

"At the end of the episode, we're around the fire," Nayyar recalled on a new installment of the *Official Big Bang Theory Podcast*. "And we're just gobbling all the brisket that [Simon Helberg's character] Howard's mom had made. Originally when we shot that, our shirts were off, and Chuck yells 'cut,' and he comes in."

Nayyar noted that both he and Galecki were incredibly fit while shooting the scene.

"Johnny had just finished or was still in the middle of his Broadway show, *The Little Dog Laughed*," Nayyar noted.

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The host pointed out the show had been earlier.

"He was still ripped," Nayyar, 45, continued. "And I was working out a lot at that time. I was in really good shape, because I was still young and my metabolism was good."

When Lorre called cut, "He’s like, 'Guys, put the shirts back on, because these guys don't have gym bodies. Like these characters don’t have gym bodies,'" Nayyar said.

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After all, the CBS series was about a group of socially awkward scientists, not buff hotties. So the actor took Lorre's words as a compliment.

"*I must be really ripped*," Nayyar thought. "Consequently, I've taken off my shirt at least 10 times in the show. Never happened again."

He also differed from his character in another way: fashion sense.

'The Big Bang Theory' cast in 2016.

Smallz & Raskind/Getty

"I was like, 'Oh man, I'm gonna have to wear this?'" he said in August on the same podcast of seeing his character's outfits, which often included a sweater vest. "I love fashion, to be honest. It's one of my favorite things. And then I was like, 'Oh my God, I'm gonna have to wear these clothes.'"

Since the comedy ended, Nayyar has starred on Apple TV's 2022 series *Suspicion* and appeared in movies such as the *Trolls* franchise and Netflix's 2024 sci-fi drama *Spaceman*, with Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan.

Watch the full conversation above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Comedy”